


And There's No Way To Explain It

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Play Along [12]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, M/M, band au, musician au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 09:03:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7261420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Multiverse, Any, First concert."</p>
<p>The Space Monkeys open for The Snakeskinners for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And There's No Way To Explain It

The next person who asked if John was ready for his first concert was going to get shot. Yes, he was nervous. No, that wasn’t why he was hanging over the toilet for the third time that day, puking up his guts. If everyone wanted to think that, things would be better for him, but damn, the doctor hadn’t been kidding about how awful this would feel. He hadn’t lost any hair, best as he could tell, but buzzing it short had been a good preemptive measure in case he needed to shave it all off. Elizabeth had made a few disapproving noises when she’d seen him, because apparently his genetically unruly hair was attractive to a good number of the fans, but he’d just shrugged and said he’d let it grow back out, but he wanted to try something new.  
  
The bathroom door banged open. “John!” It was Rodney.  
  
He straightened up, swiped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t you believe in knocking?” He flipped the toilet lid closed and hit the flush button.  
  
“Oh please, everyone could hear you from three rooms away, retching like a regency heroine fetching up her accounts,” Rodney said, and it took John a moment to wrap his head around that reference.  
  
“Did you just imply that I’m with child?”  
  
“No, but you are puking like a woman with morning sickness.” Rodney rolled his eyes. “Come on! Cam and the Snakeskinners want us to join in on their pre-show ritual.”  
  
“Be right there,” John said. “Let me rinse my mouth.”  
  
“Yeah, do that.” Rodney wrinkled his nose. He patted John’s shoulder delicately, then said, “Come on!” And he dashed away.  
  
Since when did Rodney have that much energy? Had someone given him coffee this late in the day? Because they’d all be paying for it later.  
  
John rifled through his backpack for mouthwash and a toothbrush, did a quick brush and rinse, and went to join the others backstage. The Snakeksinners were gathered in a circle with the rest of the Space Monkeys, arms around each other like it was a football huddle.  
  
Ronon beckoned John into the circle, and he ended up tucked between Teyla and Hailey.  
  
“All right, team,” Cam said, “it’s the first night of the second half of the tour, and the first night the Space Monkeys are playing with us. It’s historical.”  
  
John’s stomach roiled again, and that was definitely nerves. But he was ready for this. He’d been ready for this since he first picked up his grandfather’s guitar when he was five years old.  
  
“Now, what’s gonna happen on stage tonight?” Cam asked.  
  
His bandmates yelled, “Rock ‘n’ roll!”  
  
“And what’s the audience gonna do?”  
  
“Lose their minds!”  
  
“And what are we going to do?”  
  
“Be legendary!”  
  
John’s nerves were jangling, and he was buzzing with energy. Even though they were backstage, he could hear the crowd cheering and screaming. John had dared to peek out earlier before Evan shooed him away from the wings, and there were a lot of people out there. More than they’d ever played in front of before.  
  
Cam cleared his throat. “Vala, your solo on Never Too Late is amazing. Hit it hard.”  
  
She nodded. “Amelia, the bass line on Goodbye Angels is incredible. You were brilliant for writing it, and you play it brilliantly.”  
  
Amelia looked at Hailey. “Hailey, your pick-up harmony on Die Born is genius. Make it happen again.”  
  
“Grace,” Hailey said, “your energy is incredible. Keep it going tonight.”  
  
Grace smiled. “Cam, you’re beautiful. Get out there and break some hearts.”  
  
Cam actually blushed. Then he nudged Rodney. “Your turn.”  
  
Rodney blinked. “Um, what?”  
  
“Talk to your team.”  
  
“Oh, right!” Rodney cast a desperate look around the circle, and John’s heart thumped, but then Rodney looked right at him and said, “John, you can make a guitar weep, and you can make it rejoice, and you can always make it sing. Good luck tonight.”  
  
For one moment, John couldn’t speak, but then Teyla nudged him, and he said, “Jennifer, you’ve got the best smile. You light up a room. Light it up tonight.”  
  
Jennifer blushed, but she kept on gamely. “Ronon, your hands are magic.”

Vala and Amelia giggled.  
  
“Bewitch the crowd tonight, all right?”  
  
Ronon grinned. “Teyla, you’ve got hands steadier than a surgeon’s. Keep us together.”  
  
“Rodney,” Teyla said, “you have given us beautiful music to share with the world. Be inspired tonight.”  
  
And then Cam surged forward, dragging everyone in for a group hug.  
  
Evan cleared his throat. “Space Monkeys,” he said. “You’re on.”  
  
John and the others followed him to the wings. The lights went down, and apart from the odd glow of a cell phone, John felt like he’d been rendered blind. One of the stagehands handed him his guitar, and John had to resist the urge to ask for a copy of the set list one last time.  
  
Rodney, John knew, was sprinting along the catwalk above the stadium, to get to the sound booth. Thankfully Rodney’s phobia involved small spaces and not heights. There was no way John would have been running around the catwalks like that.  
  
“And go,” Evan whispered, and they dashed onto the stage.  
  
Ronon and Teyla opened up with the bass-drum riff of Heartbreaker, and on the second pass John joined in on his guitar.  
  
The lights came up slowly on Jennifer in center stage, belting the lyrics into the microphone.  
  
When the chorus hit, the house lights flared briefly, and with the surge of singing from the crowd, John saw them jumping up and down.  
  
He was ready for this.  
  
Forty-five minutes later, the final chords of Bang Bang Boom hung on the air, and the four of them took their bows before sprinting for the wings. Ronon swept John into a massive hug, and then he scooped Teyla into the embrace as well. Teyla snagged Jennifer, and somehow Rodney ended up in the tangle of limbs as well, and John got one brief, delicious press against Rodney before Cam and the Snakeskinners came to give them high-fives.  
  
“What now?” Ronon asked Evan, who was there with water bottles.  
  
John had drained half of his when Evan said, “You can watch from the stage or, if you’re feeling brave, go down into the pit.”  
  
Ronon’s eyes lit up. “I’m going into the pit. Who’s with me?”  
  
“Me,” Teyla said.  
  
“Me too,” Rodney said. John raised his eyebrows, but Jennifer shook her head.  
  
“Count me out. I’m beat.” She cast John a look he couldn’t quite read. “What about you? You probably ought to eat something light. I don’t think anything you ate today stayed down.”  
  
John took a deep breath, but yeah, he was feeling a little light-headed. “Jennifer’s right. I should probably sit this one out.”  
  
“My Rockstar Doctor is always right.” Rodney pressed a kiss to Jennifer’s cheek, and then he headed for the stage door, Ronon and Teyla on his heels.  
  
“Come on,” Jennifer said. “Let’s go find some food, and maybe we can talk.”  
  
“Yeah.” John smiled at her. “We totally rocked, didn’t we?”  
  
“We did.”   
  
They conferred with Evan, who gave them directions to a soup-and-sandwich joint nearby, and together they walked across the parking lot.  
  
“So,” Jennifer said, “I know your secret.”  
  
John missed a step, stumbled. “What?”  
  
“Your secret,” Jennifer said.  
  
No. Oh no. He’d tried to be careful, especially when Jennifer was around, not to get too close to Rodney or look at him too long or -  
  
“I’m sorry.” He wet his lips nervously. “Look, I never intended it to get this far, I swear I didn’t. Please, please don’t tell Rodney.”  
  
Jennifer raised her eyebrows. “Rodney? What about Ronon and Teyla?”  
  
John winced. “They already know.”  
  
Jennifer sounded skeptical. “About how sick you are?”

That brought John up short. “How sick I am?”  
  
“I wouldn't have figured it out,” Jennifer said, “except for your song. And then what you did with your hair. You throwing up made me sure, though. It's chemo, isn't it? Your mom had cancer too.”  
  
Oh, no. No no no. This was worse than her figuring out how he felt about Rodney. “Teyla and Ronon don't know about that. You can't tell them. They'll freak out.”  
  
Jennifer tilted her head curiously. “What is it about you that they already know? That Rodney and I don't.” She sounded hurt.   
  
John scrubbed a hand over his face. “I'm gay,” he muttered.   
  
“Oh,” Jennifer said softly. “Why would you tell Teyla and Ronon and not me and Rodney? I mean - after you left the band, you still saw them for track meets, but -”  
  
“I didn’t tell them. They figured it out on their own. I wanted to join the Air Force, remember? I didn’t tell _anybody._ ” John kept on walking, because despite the way his stomach was jumping, he was still hungry.  
  
Jennifer trotted to catch up to him. “Then no one knows you’re sick?”  
  
“Dave knows. The night we were writing songs - he’d opened my mail, found the letter from the doctor with the test results.”  
  
“So when you said it was a family emergency -”  
  
John nodded.  
  
“I thought you’d been looking more tired lately.”  
  
“I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, between work, the band, school, and my dad,” John said, “if it weren’t for my mother.”  
  
Jennifer reached out and squeezed his hand. She was such a good friend, and he was an awful friend in return.  
  
“You have to tell the others,” she said.  
  
He shook his head. “No. The doctors are pretty confident. They caught it early enough. I’ll be done with chemo halfway through the tour. And no one need be wiser.”  
  
“John Sheppard,” Jennifer said, “you have to let people in sometime.”  
  
“I know,” he said, but he didn’t dare. “Will you let me tell the others? In my own time.”  
  
“As long as you tell them.”  
  
“I will,” he said. He would, as soon as he was in remission - or when he was dead. “Now come on, we need to celebrate our first concert as hardcore superstars.”  
  
Jennifer laughed, and John laughed with her, and he hoped every night on tour ended like this - in energy and laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> Song Credits:
> 
> -Space Monkeys-  
> Heartbreaker - Blue Aces  
> Bang Bang Boom - The Moffatts
> 
> -Snakeskinners-  
> Never Too Late - Three Days Grace  
> Goodbye Angels - Red Hot Chili Peppers  
> Die Born - Days of the New


End file.
